Computer Hardware: Meaner and Greener - The Meaner Side
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A decade ago we had Pentium CPUs running at 266 MHz. That sounds like it was so long ago, but it was only 10 years. People wanted faster computers, and that’s what they got. We now have quad core 3.2 GHz CPUs, and that clock speed is still climbing.
Moore's Law said that the number of transistors in a CPU will double every 18 months. This has been pretty close to true so far, but it can't be true forever. We will eventually not be able to shrink the CPU down anymore. Until we hit that time, we will continue to see CPUs get faster and have more cores.
Why do people demand faster hardware? It's because we need information now. We have BlackBerries and similar devices for when we are not at a computer, but when we are, we don't want to wait for the OS to start up and the program to load. Depending on what you do, you might need the powerful CPU to do work more quickly.
Our egos also play a role as well. Sports cars are always the hottest cars around, and people love them because they are fast. Computers serve the same role to many people; they like fast machines because a speedy computer makes them look cool.
I'm seeing the meaner side of computer hardware start to be a little more tame. I don't see as many CPUs pushing the very edges of their performance. Overclockers go out and reach these speeds by changing the clocks of the CPU. I've noticed lately that there seems to be a lot of head room untouched by Intel on their CPUs.
For example, Intel's Q6600 G0 stepping were very capable of doing 3.6 GHz, but the company only sold ones with speeds up to 2.66 GHz. While it was quite possible for the chip to reach the faster speed, I think that Intel didn't want a CPU that would really use that much power as one of their flagship CPUs. Keeping it a little greener saved Intel from AMD's green campaign and the kind of target a 3.6 GHz quad core would provide.
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